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The Ancient Jew and the 
Modern German 



F. C. Shattuck 



The Ancient Jew and the 

Modern German 

A Parallel 

By 

Frederick Cheever Shattuck 



BOSTON 

Privately Printed 

1916 






0. B. Up4llM • TW MHryaMUM Pi«M • BoMM 



The Ancient Jew and the 
Modern German 

A Parallel 

ANALOGY and parallel have their place 
^ ^ in as far as we keep them in it, and 
may afford amusement, if not instruction. 
Possibly some of both may be (Jeriyed from 
comparing the Jew of the early M^ Testa- 
ment books with the modern German , as self- 
revealed of late, especially in the past year. 

It may be prefaced that Moses, Aaron, 
Joshua, and others may be regarded as col- 
lectively representing the Jewish, just as the 
present Kaiser, his grandfather, Bismarck, 
and others represent the German, or, more 
accurately, the Prussian spirit. 

The Jews found themselves hemmed in 
and hampered by the Egyptians, dominated 
by a rich, luxurious, outwardly flourishing, 
but inwardly rotten power, — a relation 
somewhat analogous to that which the Ger- 



mans have ihouj^hi themselves to occupy 
toward Great Britain. Moses showed them 
how Ixidly oft* they were, how necessary for 
their development and happiness was ex- 
pansion, and stirrwl imaj^inaiion and greed 
alike, by picluring to them a promisetl land 
flowing with milk and honey, a real place in 
the sun, theirs by right, l^ecause God had set 
ii apart for them, his chosen i)eople; to be 
won by might derived from God Himself. 
The Je\N s had a m()no|X)ly in (lod, and 
found this mon()|)oly \ery couNenient in jus- 
tifying them in the fulfillment of material 
desires, absolutely without reference to the 
rights of oiluTs. (i(xl commands them 
through Moses to allege the pretext of a 
desire to worship in the wilderness, and to 
l)orrow freely the \ aluables of the I'lgvplians. 
God opens the Red Sea for them and their 
Iwrrowings, saving ihmi and the plunder, 
but drowning the Kgy|)tian troops to a man. 
They a|)proach the |)romised land. 

They apply first to the king of Fxlom for 
jXTmission to pass through his hinds, to 



strike a rich and unready people with whom 
they have no quarrel, only a burning de- 
sire for booty. The terms of their request 
have a very modern application. 

Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country : we 
will not pass through the fields, or through the vine- 
yards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells : 
we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to 
the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy 
bordere. 

And Edom said unto him. Thou shalt not pass by 
me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. 

And the children of Israel said unto him. We will 
go by the high way : and if I and my cattle drink of 
thy water, then I will pay for it : I will only (without 
doing anything else) go through on my feet. 

And he said. Thou shalt not go through. And Edom 
came out against him with much people, and with a 
strong hand. 

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through 
his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him. 

They then send messengers to Sihon, king 
of the Amorites, saying: 

Let me pass through thy land ; we will not turn into 
the fields, or into the vineyards ; we will not drink of 
the watere of the well : but we will go along by the 
king's high way, until we be past thy borders. 



And Sihon would not suffer Israel to paa through 
his border : but Sihon gathered all his people together, 
and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and 
he came to Jahaz, ami fought agaiiLst Israel. 

And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, 
and possessed Wis land fnjm Anion unto Jabt>ok, even 
unto the children of Aniinon : for the border of the 
children of Ammori wus sirong. 

For ** Anioriles'' one might read " Ik-l- 
gians/' 

The Anialekites and their fate are not 
cieNoid of interest. What their offence was 
does not appear, but tliey u ere l>et\\ een Is- 
rael and the sini and had hind and goods. 
These they tried to defend. 

And the I»nl said unto Mos^-s, Write this for a 
memorial in a IkxjIc, and rchj-arsw it in the t-ars of 
Jmhua : for I will utterly put out (he n*membrance of 
Anmli-k fn)in under heavrn. 

\ii(l Joshua discomfited Anuilrk and his |)eople 
with the <flge of the sword. 

The story of Ainalek has not esc*a|>ed the 
restless mind of the Kaiser, w h<>, if Sundnv 
finds him on the '* Hohenzollern '* or a Ixit- 

tleshij), j)rc:Hh('s a sermon to tlie shipN com- 



pany . Of these sermons only one, up to 1 903 , 
was reported in full. This one was preached 
July 29, 1900, on the ''Hohenzollern," as 
the punitive expedition to China was setting 
out, and takes Amalek as its text. He says in 
part: 

And who to-day does not understand what lesson 
our text conveys, for again the pagan spirit of Amalek 
has stirred in far Asia, and with great cunning and 
power, with fire and murder, they seek to hinder the 
triumphal march of Christian momls, of Christian 
faith, of European commerce and education. And 
again God has ordered : " Choose men ; go forth and 
fight against Amalek! " Our German people will be 
the granite rock on which Almighty God will com- 
plete the building of the civilization of the world. 

In this connection extracts from two 
speeches to troops embarking for China may 
be quoted : 

You are to fight against a cunning, courageous, 
well-armed, and cruel foe. When you are upon him, 
know this: Spare nobody, make no prisoners. Use 
your weapons in a manner to make every Chinaman 
for a thousand years to come forego the wish to as 
much as look askance at a German. 

How familiar this sounds to an old Testa- 



ment reader! Hv August 2 something has 
occurred to change the Kaiser's view of the 
Chinaman, for on that date, again to depart- 
ing trtx^ps, he says : 

By iiaturt' iht* Chiiianian is a cou-ardly cur, but he 
is tricky and doublt-facrtl. 

Here we have the gosj>el of Schrecklich- 
keit, in the practic*e of which the Jews were 
past masters. They appHed it in \ aiying de- 
gree to difi'erent concjuered |)eople. In one 
case they seem to indulge in no more killing 
than is necessary to prevail, enslaving the 
j)e()ple (hewers of wood and drauers of 
water) and seizing their go(xls. In another, 
every male is pui to ih«- sword. In another, 
every li\ ing man, w oman, and chilti, and all 
fl(M*ks and herds, are slain, their ueajx)ns 
Ix-ing so used as to make e\en a cow or a 
sheep for a thousand vears to come forego 
ili«* w ish to as nuu'h as KK)k askance at a 
Jew. 

A careful reader of the Kaiser's speeches 
will find that he really know s the existence of 
the New Tesiamcni and nf the Ncnn Disppn- 



sation ; but the God whom he affects and has 
chosen as his partner is the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of battle. 
For his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the 
Prince of Peace, he seems to have little use 
in his business. 

The sending of spies among other peoples 
seems to have been a fine art among the Jews. 
It is recorded that in Jericho they lodged with 
Rahab, the harlot, whose services were later 
richly rewarded. Germany also has sent 
swarms of spies into all lands, and her chem- 
ists study the caloric and other values of their 
milk and honey. Thus, under Moses, and 
Joshua the war-lord, the land of Bashan, of 
the Midianites, of the Ammonites, Hittites, 
etc., was overwhelmed, and Israel won to 
the western bank of the Jordan. How, after 
Moses' death, Joshua, uniting the priestly 
and prophetic functions of Moses with his 
own military functions, and adding the man- 
tle of Moses to his own breastplate, crossed 
the Jordan and waged ruthless and success- 
ful war on the owners of desirable lands, is 



always good reading, and has a sj)ecial in- 
terest at the present time. Blood and iron 
mark the path. 

Thus the Jews** hacked their way " into 
the |K)ssession of the promised land, and 
waxed fat on the milk and honry thereof. 
Moses was a great man and accomplished 
grtai things, considering the times and 
means at hisdis)X)sal. During foriN vears he 
prepared his |)eople for the promised land, 
though he did not enter il himself. 

But now has arisen a mcxlern - and a 
greater — than Moses, who, after forty 
years of preparation, finds the chosen jK^)ple 
of to-day debarn*d from the place in the sim, 
— the promised land, lo which their \ irtue 
and might entitle them. 

There was no such thing in those days 
as public opinion as we moderns understand 
the term. For its existence to-dav we mav all 
lie grateful. It is a fon'e which no j)e<)ple, 
however aggressive and self-righteous, can 
w holly disregard. As far asfreeilom from the 
influence of public o|)inion goes, the 'I'urks 



of the present day seem to be a survival from 
ancient times, the nearest rivals of the an- 
cient Jew. The Teutons do their best, but 
public opinion counts for more in Europe 
than in Armenia. It is in China, however, 
that the German lets himself go. 

The Jews were monotheists. Jehovah was 
their only God and their monopoly. The Ger- 
mans, however, arebitheistic, and have gone 
the Jews, to use the language of the street, 
"one better." The Kaiser has his Jehovah, 
of whom the Germans are the present-day 
chosen people, for the superstitious folk who 
still believe in God and Christ ; but he has, in 
addition, the god Kultur, of which the intel- 
lectuals are the prophets. The Moslems say, 
"There is but one God, and Mohammed 
is his prophet;" the intellectuals, "There 
is but one Kultur, and that Teutonic." In 
the days of Moses and his successors there 
were unbelievers, but the spiritual power was 
strong enough to severely punish and root 
them out, — Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
for instance. At the present day among the 



iinl)elievers the intellei-iuals, so-called, are 
prominent. They don't deny ihat there are 
other Kulturs any more than Israel denied 
that there were other j^cxls, — Baal, Ash ta- 
roth, and the rest. **For the Lord our Goii is 
a prrat Cjo<.1, a fffrtit A'in^amonfr all OW.v. " 
Bui these were false gods, just as non-Teu- 
tonic Kulturs are false kulturs, destined to 
be swallowed up, as were the rods of Pha- 
raoh's sorcerers, by the rod of Aaron. The 
iiUrlle<*tuals |)reach the ^^over-individuaT' 
and the Stale. All of them who are profes- 
sors, are, as State officers, part of the State. 
Woe, grievous woe hirks for the professor 
who strays from the |x)litical paths laid out 
for liiin. Thus CkhI, for those who l)elieve 
ill Him, and Kultur, for those u ho worshij) 
it, are yokal logciher to rexletMii and subject 
the world. Thus bitheistic Germany oft'ers 
a choice l^etween Jehovah and Kiiluir, w hilc 
j)utting n()ol)stacle in the path of those who, 
for safety first, pray alike to Go(xl Lord and 
G(xxl Devil. 

In scnv)n and out of season the Kaiser pro- 



claims himself the Lord's anointed, no silent 
partner, but inspired by inside information. 
The monopoly on God which he claims for 
himself and the Germans, he claims with 
unction as well as with skill. He comes by 
this rightly, for was not his "never-to-be- 
forgotten grandfather" called the "Em- 
peror Pius the First"? 

A few quotations from his speeches may 
be given in illustration . He says : 

I look upon the people and nation handed on to me 
as a responsibility conferred upon me by God ; and 
that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to in- 
crease this heritage, for which one day I shall be called 
upon to give an account ; those who try to interfere 
with my task I shall crush. 

And again he says : 

I regard my whole position as given to me direct 
from Heaven, and that I have been called by the High- 
est to do His work, by One to Whom I must one day 
render an account. 

There is only one master in this country, — I am 
he, and I will not tolerate another. 

There is only one law, — my law, the law which I 
myself lay down. 



And yet again: 
I gt) my way, rtc. 

I (X)uld wish that some more erudite and 
thoroup^h student of the Old Testament had 
painted where I can only sketch. The war 
is nlrrady fifiefn months old and was lx)rn 
with teelh ; but I ha\ e only seen hints of 
what I have tried to set forth. 

Inclosing, I ret^all the final overwhelming 
of thr Jews. First, irn of the twelve triJ>es 
were lost ; then the two remaining were car- 
ried into slaverv, later returning to Jerusa- 
lem, but finally lost their country, and their 
descendants are wanderers on the face of the 
earth, a race without a nationality or coun- 
try, held together by a religion siill \ ii:il, but 
jwwerfully nuxiified by the solvent action of 
free institutions and the dis<Mj)Iine of ad- 
versity. The modern Jew is a gcxxl citizen 
wherever decendy treaiexl. In .\merica, and 
Great Briuiin especially, he contributes at 
least his share to the (X)mmon welfare, in a 
broad sense. Feu pro- Allies u ish to see the 



Germans scattered like the Jews, but all 
hope that free institutions may have some 
such action on Teutonism as they are exer- 
cising on the Judaic religion. 



[J kind clerical friend calls my attention to 2 Esdras 
xi and xii 31-35. A multiheaded eagle [Germany] 
comes out of the sea and rules the whole world intoler- 
ably. A lion [Great Britain] comes out of the wood, re- 
bukes and casts down the eagle. The Jirofihetic analogy 
is certainly curious even if not quite accurate.] 




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